TikTok ban in US: Company seeks emergency injunction to prevent it

TikTok has requested an emergency injunction to stop or postpone the planned ban on the platform in the US.

Back in March, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would effectively ban TikTok from the US unless Chinese owner ByteDance agreed to give up its share of the immensely popular app.

TikTok claims this is censorship and collides with the principle of free speech. However, the company’s post on X got a lot of responses from people who feel TikTok itself banned them for no clear reason.

On Friday, December 6, a federal appeals court panel unanimously upheld the law that gave ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, nine months to either get a new owner or be banned in the US. The deadline is looming; unless the courts stop it, it will go into effect January 19, 2025.

Free speech advocates agree with TikTok that a ban would violate First Amendment rights to free speech, mainly because it would set a precedent. The American Civil Liberties Union said to Reuters:

“Banning TikTok blatantly violates the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans who use this app to express themselves and communicate with people around the world.”

Ever since a former executive at TikTok’s parent company ByteDance claimed in court documents that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had access to TikTok data, despite the data being stored in the US, TikTok has been battling to convince politicians that it operates independently of ByteDance, which has deep ties to the CCP.

As early as in 2022, the FCC called TikTok an unacceptable security risk which should be removed from app stores, saying it had referred a complaint against TikTok and parent company ByteDance to the Department of Justice for collecting personal information from children without parental consent.

Since 2020, several governments and organizations have banned, or considered banning, TikTok from their staff’s devices. And during a US Senate hearing, General Paul Nakasone, Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) stated that “America’s TikTok-addicted youth is playing with a loaded gun.”

Meanwhile TikTok also received orders to close its offices in Canada following a national security review. The app has already completely been banned in India, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Nepal, and Somalia.

According to TikTok, a ban on the platform would cause small businesses to lose over $1 billion in revenue within just one month, while creators would suffer $300 million in lost earnings.

TikTok’s petition has requested that the Court of Appeals make a decision on the injunction by December 16, 2024.

We will keep you posted.

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